Irish step dance
Irish step dance grew from the teaching of travelling dancing masters, who toured Ireland from around the 1750s; by the late nineteenth century distinct regional styles existed in Munster, Ulster and Connemara. Dancers keep the upper body stiff while the feet move fast and precisely, in soft shoes or in hard shoes that make a percussive sound. Common forms include reels, jigs, hornpipes and slip jigs.
The Gaelic League, founded in 1893, held the first organised feis (dance competition) in 1897 and reshaped local step dancing into what is now called Irish dancing. A separate body, An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha, standardised teacher and adjudicator examinations. Riverdance, shown at Eurovision in 1994, reached a world audience; the Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne championship now draws up to about three thousand dancers.
Sources
- Irish stepdance (Wikipedia)
- How Irish dancing conquered the world (Irish Post, 5 March 2022)
- About CLRG - An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha
Organisations connected with this dance
- An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG)
- Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
- Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA)
Listed as references; being listed is not an endorsement by or of the organisation.